Our family: fractious and overwrought at times, but bound by a fierce and shared passion

Family love is messy, clinging, and of an annoying and repetitive pattern – like bad wallpaper
P.J. O’Rourke

Norwich City forums, even ours, fit the description painfully well. A visiting Martian coming to MFW (as he no doubt would) might be forgiven for missing that we’re drawn together by a powerful, shared passion – in this case a love of our club and a burning desire to see it do well.

To describe a club like ours as a family can be a lazy cliché. But in many ways the comparison is apt. For the most part, we haven’t come together through friendship and choice; we’ve been thrown together by a common bond, and sometimes make uncomfortable bedfellows.

The MFW community – our regular writers and commenters – behave uncannily like a family. Our focus is that shared bond, but we have different views on how it’s functioning, whether it’s giving us a fair share, how it should develop. We take umbrage at real or imagined slights and lose perspective in our dealings with each other. We fall out when we never should.

I deliberately say “we” in that paragraph. I’m as guilty as anyone, and worse than many. I’ll come back to a New Season Resolution I’m going to try to make.

It’s always worth trying to find common ground in our common passion. Though much is up in the air at this stage of a key transfer window, I wonder if we can ascertain some patterns.

Whether or not we think Stuart Webber should be in the position he is, we know he’s trying to pull off some fancy footwork. We want a better-performing team next season, at the same time as keeping the club afloat by a sharp reduction in the playing budget (transfers and wages).

Even the more sceptical might see some cause for encouragement. From what we’ve seen and read of his performances in Scotland, Kenny McLean should make a positive impact; we know Moritz Leitner will. I’m looking forward to seeing a fit and prepared Onel Hernandez making his mark.

Ben Marshall looks to me a really good signing (if/when it’s confirmed). In terms of innate ability, he’s not on a par with the departed Josh Murphy; in terms of week in–week out effectiveness, he looks an improvement; and the trade has added substantially to our coffers.

We’ve lost some substantial talent, of course, especially James Maddison – the team set-up will inevitably be different in his absence. And of course, as Robin Sainty said here last week, the acid test will be our dealing in strikers.

One point perhaps not as highlighted as it might have been is the nature of our selling. We’ve sold some good players, for good prices; some of those players (Alex Pritchard, Josh Murphy) had made clear they wanted to be elsewhere. That’s enabled our selling to be selective. Far from the ‘fire sale’ predicted by some, we’ve been able to rebuff bids for players we’ve cultivated and who want to ply their trade for Norwich City – notably Ben Godfrey and Jamal Lewis.

Some reasons for a positive view; some for a negative one; some important factors in the mix still to come. I’ll be looking forward to seeing how it all comes together on the pitch – the only sensible yardstick, along with keeping the club financially viable, to judge by.

Let’s hope we’ll have more of a consensus view when we see the new team in action.

Returning to the nature of MFW for a minute. We love comments, both supportive and critical, on the articles we produce. It’s been observed, though, that sometimes the comments take us on a different path from the original articles. In particular, we get sucked into repetitive discussion of ownership and finances. No desire to censor that, but there are plenty of articles on those topics which provide ample opportunity to discuss them.

Again, I’m as guilty as anyone. Specifically, I’ve done a lot of (surely tedious to most readers) sparring with Dave Bowers. I resolve to cut that back. Happily, we have a real-life measure to judge between my views and Dave’s.

Back when we were discussing the Academy Bond, Dave stated his view that “barring a miracle, the club is headed for insolvency”. I don’t share that view. Now, there’s been no miracle – just Stuart Webber and Steve Stone doing the job they started last May. So we’ll see what happens. If the club goes insolvent, I’ll lose a small investment in the Academy – and I’ll publicly apologise to Dave here.

Meanwhile, it’s worth remembering the good (actually, great) of being part of the Norwich City family. It doesn’t mean criticism isn’t valid; sometimes it’s the best thing we can do for each other. Ultimately, we all want the same thing.

I’m not a habitual quoter of Les Dawson, but sometimes you can’t quibble:

Good piece Stewart. Can’t disagree with any of that and as you say the acid test will be how we progress on the pitch. Not expecting miracles next season, though that wld be nice, but a marked improvement in tempo and plenty more goals. How we achieve that will be a big, big test for Webber and Farke.
Our transfer dealings to date leave me more optimistic for the season ahead. Whether we can also offload Oliveira, who gives the strong impression he wld rather be elsewhere, and get in a suitable replacement, will be as important as any business we’ve done so far.

Hi Stewart
An interesting subject and read as with Martin I would agree there are sometimes commens made that really hack people of mine included and yes I will go on about investments.

You know the smiths and sometimes it seems you and Mick will jump to their defence when everyone around is calling for clarity on investments, handing over to Tom Smith and other subjects we as supporters would and do get frustrated not knowing what the future holds in store for the club.

MFW is like a big family as you suggest and we do get up tight when someone knocks our opinions on a given subject, Everyone is entitled to their opinions and others can argue their point but not to the extent of being rude or nasty lets hope a new season brings good will to and from all those that write articles comment on this site

Well written Stewart. The players coming in have given me more reason to be hopeful for the season ahead as well as the amounts received for those leaving.
Totally agree with your comments about the repetitive attacks on the board on MFW. All has its place as you point out but it has become boringly tiresome at times and has stifled debate on other topics. Also it has seemed to verge on bitterness and personal dislike at times and when that happens in a family it can become dysfunctional and divorced.
Having said that i am looking forward to my 60th season,and in a small way being part of it all, you never know how it will unfold. Again a bit like family life.

I think you’r point about “verge on bitterness and personal dislike at times and when that happens in a family it can become dysfunctional and divorced.” is an important one. Ammoungst an increasing faction of the family there is a growing frustration with the heads of the family. That is leading to bitterness and turning people to not only dislike Delia but those who would seemingly unquestioningly support her. This is happening to an extent already, a slow start to next season and things could turn ugly. Chase got hounded out of the club after presiding over our best years only to sell our best and send us into decline, some folks see something similar going on now and crave the unknown because they believe they know where Delia at al are taking us.
I want to see if Webber can make a success of the self funding model, because surely if he can’t then board will have run out of options. It’s possible, with a bit of luck, the right manager/head coach (I’m not going to get into that one today!) And the right recruits at the right time. It’s just a lot more stars needing to align than if you havd a bigger budget.

I stopped publishing on the Pink’un forum years ago ( though I still read some of the items ) because it turned into lots of back- biting and personal comments, not to mention supporters ( should that be THE supporter ) of a certain other somewhat jealous inferior club posting comments, sometimes disguised as Canary fans, just to stir things up.

On here, there may be differences of opinion, but at least they’re honest.

So who are the nuts at MFW? I guess that depends on your perspectives. But dont go reigning your responses in too much Stew, one of the great appeals of MFW for me and I guess others is the investment many of you have in your articles and that you will respond and comment with us all after the article. I’m sure Dave B even appreciates having you for a sparring partner, like two brothers fighting over the same girl. One all chocs n flowers, the other treat em mean.
And Whilst I agree that it can get tiresome when seemingly every article no matter what topic can get dragged back to the owners and their financial means. It is kinda the dominating, overriding aspect of the club that depending on your perspective limits or makes our club appealing.
To Alex B, you say it’s frustrating with the owners and not knowing what the future holds, I would say, actually with what they have said, we know with greater clarity than virtually any club what the future holds. How optimistic we all feel about that might vary, but a future with Delia clinging on followed by Tom, is hard to see giving us more than a good season in 5 or 10 when we might exceed our limited budgetary constraints. One of my nutty Canary uncles will see that as unduly pessimistic, that deranged aunty who can see no light, will say I’m a nutjob happy clapper for thinking we won’t be preparing for a year or more in lge 1 this time next year.

To be clear, we certainly don’t want MFW to become tame or over-polite – lively and robust debate is an essential part of our family.

Just a quick word on Tom Smith. We do know a bit more about him and his views than some have suggested, in part through an extensive interview in the match programme of 7 May 2017 (vs QPR). It’s all worth re-reading, but perhaps especially his view on future ownership/investment: “The way I see it, the Football Club needs to look at as many options as we can to help it succeed in the long term. But not at the cost of its longevity, its identity, its commitment to the community”.

PS The Les Dawson quote wasn’t meant to point the finger at any particular nuts in our ranks! I just couldn’t resist it.

General
Yes we know by reading between the lines and a few sound bites from there articleswith the Guardian and Times but to a few it is all speculative.

A couple of times I have suggested MFW tried to do a Q&A with the but was informed they have tried and it has come back no so more power to them for at least trying.

I would like to see Argent do an in depth interview and get them to explain the boards future plans and how Tom fits into it all, and actually say they are looking to get investment.

We can all look at what has been said by the Smiths supporters and no one wants to see a complete return to how Chase was ousted, the crown jewels have been sold to help the self financing ad cover the black hole, nows the time to step up and say yes or no to a tilt at the premiership again or do they want a future in the never ending slog of the championship.

Alex: we haven’t given up on further interviews. I’ve made my view known that it would be good to hear more – at least clarifications – from our directors. Hopefully it’s recognised that MFW would be a decent outlet: not a soft touch, but not malicious either.

Watching MOTD again beause of course I am. The first goal made by an overlapping Byram making space for an advancing Tettey, that's right Tettey to take the ball wide, cross to win the corner. Hard to pick an MoM but Tettey was immense after so little football #ncfc

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